Effects of sentence form on the construction of mental plans from procedural discourse

Memory for procedural discourse was examined in two experiments. In Experiment 1, memory was assessed using recall; in Experiment 2, a recognition test was used. In both experiments, the memorability of three types of action statements were compared: a transitive verb form, in which the action was described by a main clause; a verbal adjective form, in which the action was indicated by an adjective derived from a verb; and an implicit action form, in which the action was only implied. Information associated with transitive verbs and verbal adjectives was more likely to be recalled than information associated with implicit actions. Although a manipulation of prior knowledge affected overall recall performance, it did not interact with sentence form. In addition, recognition accuracy was affected by neither sentence form nor prior knowledge. To account for these results, it was proposed that transitive verbs and verbal adjectives generate a semantic representation that includes features of the action, whereas implicit actions do not. This difference in semantic representation leads to structural differences in a mental plan for the task. The obtained effects on recall reflect these differences in plan structure.